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- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Addressing agricultural labour issues is key to biodiversity-smart farming
- 2023
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Ingår i: Biological Conservation. - 0006-3207. ; 284
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is an urgent need for agricultural development strategies that reconcile agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. This is especially true in the Global South where population growth is rapid and much of the world's remaining biodiversity is located. Combining conceptual thoughts with empirical insights from case studies in Indonesia and Ethiopia, we argue that such strategies will have to pay more attention to agricultural labour dynamics. Farmers have a strong motivation to reduce the heavy toil associated with farming by adopting technologies that save labour but can negatively affect biodiversity. Labour constraints can also prevent farmers from adopting technologies that improve biodiversity but increase labour intensity. Without explicitly accounting for labour issues, conservation efforts can hardly be successful. We hence highlight the need for biodiversity-smart agriculture, that is farming practices or systems that reconcile biodiversity with land and labour productivity. Our empirical insights suggest that technological and institutional options to reconcile farmers' socio-economic goals and biodiversity conservation exist but that more needs to be done to implement such options at scale.
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| 2. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Animal traction, two-wheel tractors, or four-wheel tractors? A best-fit approach to guide farm mechanization in Africa
- 2023
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Ingår i: Experimental Agriculture. - 0014-4797 .- 1469-4441. ; 59
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Farm mechanization promises to help raise labor productivity and reduce the heavy toil of farming on the world's millions of smallholder farms, hence contributing to socioeconomic development in the Global South, in particular in Africa. While mechanization is therefore high on the African development agenda, there are heavy - at times dogmatic - debates on which technological pathway toward farm mechanization - animal traction, two-wheel tractors, and four-wheel tractors - should be supported by African governments and development partners. One discussion area relates to the future of animal traction. Proponents see a continued scope for the use of draught animals, whereas opponents see animal traction as old-fashioned and see a potential to leapfrog this mechanization stage. There are also debates on the potential of two-wheel tractors, with proponents arguing that such walk-behind tractors are more affordable and suitable for smallholder farmers, and opponents believing that such tractors lack efficiency and power and still come with a high drudgery. This paper argues that there are no blueprint answers on which technological pathway is 'best' but only answers on which one 'best fits' the respective conditions. Based on this premise, this paper introduces a 'best-fit' framework that allows for assessing the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the three technological pathways in different agroecological and socioeconomic conditions. The results suggest that all three forms of mechanization are associated with areas where they 'best fit'. All three farm mechanization pathways hinge on public policies and investments to create an enabling environment for private markets, as, ultimately, innovation processes should be market driven. The 'best-fit' framework enables governments and development partners to focus efforts to support farm mechanization on solutions that 'best fit' their country's farming systems and not on those that are politically most attractive, thereby contributing to sustainable agricultural mechanization and development.
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| 3. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Nutrition-sensitive lockdowns: Conceptual framework and empirical insights from Africa during COVID-19
- 2023
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Ingår i: Development Policy Review. - : Wiley. - 0950-6764 .- 1467-7679. ; 41:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Motivation: Countries facing challenges of nutrition security confront a trade-off when dealing with pandemics such as COVID-19. Implementing lockdown measures, widely used worldwide, can help “flatten the curve” (of disease), but such measures may worsen nutrition security. Purpose: We aim to identify and justify nutrition-sensitive lockdown measures to reduce trade-offs with nutrition security. Methods and approach: We propose a conceptual framework which distinguishes eight lockdown measures and six pathways to nutrition security. To demonstrate the relevance of the pathways, we reviewed emerging literature on COVID-19 and nutrition security. We analysed the content of 1188 newspaper articles on lockdown effects in five African countries: Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. Findings: Some lockdown measures, such as closing workplaces and restricting movement, potentially worsen nutrition far more than others. Banning events and public gatherings have far less impact on nutrition. This can be seen from the framework, the academic literature, and is supported by the analysis of newspaper reports in the five countries. Policy implications: It is better, when possible, to test and trace disease than to lock down. But when lockdowns are needed, the first recourse should be to measures that have few nutritional consequences, such as banning public events. When more drastic measures are necessary, nutritional harm should be mitigated by, for example, exempting farm labour from restrictions on movement, by replacing school meals with take-home rations, and, above all, providing income support to the most affected and most vulnerable households.
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| 4. |
- Hidalgo, Francisco, et al.
(författare)
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Digitalization, sustainability, and coffee. Opportunities and challenges for agricultural development
- 2023
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Ingår i: Agricultural Systems. - 0308-521X. ; 208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- CONTEXT: Digital technologies have the potential to address several sustainability challenges of the coffee value chain, however, given potential backlash consequences, this process must be assessed thoroughly. Descriptions of digital tools designed for this value chain have been presented in the literature, however, a critical examination of socio-environmental consequences of the process of digitalization is still lacking. OBJECTIVE: Using a socio-technical approach, this article examines innovation pathways proposed by the process of digitalization in the coffee value chain and identifies the opportunities and challenges of these pathways to contribute to sustainability goals in this value chain. METHODS: Technical characteristics of 20 digital tools oriented to the coffee producing sector are examined. We carried out a review of secondary information and conducted online semi-structured interviews with developers of these tools. Qualitative analyses of these characteristics were conducted across three themes: 1) knowledge and value systems represented, 2) power structures, 3) effective use of digital technology. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis identified two digitalization pathways that are likely to affect different dimensions of sustainability. On the one hand, digital advisory services are focused on the diffusion of conventional agricultural practices to optimize production for a commodity market. On the other hand, trade platforms and traceability systems are associated with enhanced visibility of producers to facilitate their participation in differentiated markets. However, access barriers to technologies create asymmetrical participation of producers in these scenarios. Additionally, evidence shows that, more than a revolution, digitalization of the coffee value chain is about optimization of production based on the use of synthetic inputs and of traditional extension models, and more efficient social coordination within already centralized power structures. SIGNIFICANCE: The analytical framework based on the technical characteristics of digital tools and their interaction with social systems revealed that sustainability outcomes derived from the process of digitalization in the coffee value chain are far from being straightforward. Considering digital technologies not as a homogeneous category, but as a configuration of different technical arrays, each one with distinctive patterns and impacts, provides a more nuanced understanding of the role of digitalization for agricultural development.
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